My photographs make me laugh...

Barceloneta - Barcelona 2008

Provokateur

We had a talk today with Joshua Blackburn from Provokateur which was really insightful into the world of more ethical and sustainable design. It is good to see someone actually doing work that they really care about and that makes a difference.

www.wewanttap.com

Beosans Drawers

We recently had a typographic project set by Julia, which they gave us a typeface and we had to illustrate one unique aspect of it. We had Beosans, which is a very modern typeface that uses Post-script 3 technology to enable it to be printed differently every single time. The typeface is made up of many vectors and the printer choses at random, these vectors.

We illustrated this function by producing three brand new drawers into an old metal type drawer unit. Three different Beosans were chosen, 21-23, ranging from not very flexible, to extremely flexible. When the drawers were opened, the typeface would change with the movement.

 Beosans 21.

 Beosans 22.

Beosans 23.

In collaboration with Poppy Hennig, Tom Wrigglesworth, Jenny Carter and Julia.

Ale Barba

Alejandra Barba is a children's' book illustrator from Mexico and currently has an extensive list of publications from around the world. Her work is beautifully unique and very charming. If you like what you see please visit her web page as shown in my friends list where you can contact her personally and view more of her work.

Cal.ligrafia (Chinese Calligraphy)

At Eina, I am currently studying Cal.ligrafia (Chinese Calligraphy) - it is a very interesting skill that requires a lot of self discipline. You have to learn breathing exercises as your breathing affects the way that you draw with the brush. There is a lot of history regarding this art and the philosophy behind it is crucial to the overall understanding.

We have learned how to draw 5 different lines and to combine them into characters - believe me this is harder than it sounds! My favourite part is making my own ink with my stone bowl and ink stick. I shall keep my progress updated!

Nadav Kander

Untitled #3

Diver, Salt Lake, USA

Erin (after Caravaggio)

Nadav Kander is my favourite photographer - he captures the world in the most beautiful way and deals with issues ranging from quirky observations to disturbing social issues.

www.nadavkander.com

Packaging

This project was to design and illustrate a piece of promotional packaging for the band - The Arcade Fire. They are relatively unheard of in Spain, despite being famous worldwide. My design includes an illustrative lighter in a fire alarm style box. The text on the front translates as:

In an Intervention break here.

Intervention is a particularly popular song of the band. The lighter is to be used at gigs and festivals in the tradition of waving it above your head - and for this purpose the flame is red.

Underneath the lighter, are two candles - promoting the band name and the next concert in the area.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

It is estimated Barcelona will run out of running water by October this year. This is due to severe droughts in the city and lead to the import of water. Despite this, every night the streets in the centre are washed down by Government employed workers.

Although, the water in Barcelona is not safe to drink, this has lead me to re-think my position on the issue of bottled water. I used to believe that it was a pointless and expensive luxury, of which we were paying the price with the consequences on the environment. I still believe this, but only for countries who's drinking water is safe to drink, such as the UK. Here in Spain, it is normal to purchase bottled water - it is extremely cheap at about 6pence a litre but still not environmentally sound.

Over the last two months, I have been collecting the bottles of water I have consumed:

This is most of the water I have consumed since my arrival in Barcelona.

Illustrating the problem in Barcelona.

And over two months I have consumed at least:

Litres of water!!!!

Maybe, with 3 months still to go, I should just collect the bottle tops?

Illustrations

Some more illustrative work in response to the album, Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.

Intervention

In my illustration classes in Barcelona, we have been experimenting and responding to music. At the moment we are listening to Arcade Fire - both the albums, Funeral and Neon Bible. These illustrations are my responses to my favourite song - Intervention. (Neon Bible)

Self Initiated - Food Miles

This is a self-initiated project to highlight the amount of miles our food has to travel to get to our plates. The stickers feature the country of origin and the number of miles it flew to get to the UK - to give consumers a choice of whether they want to purchase imported, or home grown produce.

Shortcut

A video communicating the idea of a short-cut

using the example of an email being the short-cut to

communication.

In collaboration with Tara Woolnough.

Create a meme

This project was to create a 'meme' , so our group wanted to create a saying that people could use for when any situation went wrong. The phrase would have to induce a sense of calm, so that the person in the situation could recollect their thoughts to tackle the problem. We thought of the figure, Ray Mears - an expert in nature who is famous for surviving in any natural situation and overcoming any problem with the resources around him.

The phrase we created was:

"What would Ray Mears do?".

We demonstrated our idea through a presentation and typographical posters - with the situation being that a guy had caught himself in his zipper. He asks, "what would Ray Mears do?" and Ray Mears appears with a solution.

Money

This brief was "money, money money", so it was open and left to our interpretation. We created a method of detecting how much money customers had as they entered a shop. This would eliminate humiliation or any awkwardness as the staff would know how to approach the customer, as they could more accurately assume whether or not the customer would purchase anything and if they would require assistance.

This could be done through electronic chips in debit and credit cards and could be detected through the security gates, so the information would be more secure and subtle.

This was resolved in a presentation in the style of a 'buyers market' for potential shop-owners looking to invest in the scheme.

Invention

The brief was to create a new invention, something completely original and wacky - but served a purpose to eliminate a problem.

The problem we identified was that people find it very difficult to wake up in the morning and usually press the snooze button.

To eliminate this problem, we designed a pair of pyjamas that had built in mechanisms to ensure you get out of bed in the morning - such as a speaker in the collar that got louder and louder, lightweight packs that got cooler the longer you wore the pyjamas once the alarm had gone off, and vibrating armpit pads to tickle you until you got up and took off the pyjamas.